Maui and Hawaii as a whole badly need some legislation to let paradise remain paradise. We can begin with a state law outlawing those obnoxious car-honking fobs on rental cars. One cannot go anywhere anymore without hearing that noise that no adult loves to hear.

Tourists should not have to be told not to use the fob, that they can easily lock all of their doors the same way they do at home, by pressing that convenient button on the inside of the car door before they exit. Maybe there is something in the airplane air that makes them behave so stupidly and rudely.

As the growth of vacation rentals spreads, there seems to be no place left where one can escape the incessant gawdawful honking. Get California to go along and pass a similar ban and carmakers will have no choice but to reduce the fob-honking to at least a mild chirp if tourists think they need a noise to lock their car. What began as a way to locate a car in a mall parking lot has become a blight on paradise.

The Legislature also should consider tacking onto that law a heavy tax on car rentals to make the visitor industry help pay for their road use. Another welcome addition would be to add another provision similar to Idaho’s against driving slowly in the passing lane. How about returning to the old turnpike road signs that read “Keep right except to pass,” and enforce it?

Howard Fields

Lahaina